Ezhimala (hill, Kannur)

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Ezhimala
Ezhimala
Highest point
Elevation286 m (938 ft)
Coordinates12°01′06″N 75°12′57″E / 12.01833°N 75.21583°E / 12.01833; 75.21583
Geography
Ezhimala is located in Kerala
Ezhimala
Ezhimala
Location of Ezhimala
LocationKerala, India
CountryIndia
Parent rangeIndependent, adjacent to the Arabian Sea
Naval Academy, Ezhimala

Ezhimala, a hill reaching a height of 286 metres (938 ft), is located near

Kannur district of Kerala, South India. It is a part of a conspicuous and isolated cluster of hills, forming a promontory, 38 km (24 mi) north of Kannur (Cannanore). The Indian Naval Academy at Ezhimala is Asia's largest, and the world's third-largest, naval academy.[1][2][3]

As the former capital of the ancient

Kodagu hills on the eastern boundary, also including the isolated islands of Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea.[4]

Etymology

Historically, the Ezhimala hills were a prominent and important maritime landmark. Ships crossing the Indian Ocean from Arabia and East Africa with the monsoon winds usually first sighted the south Indian coast around Ezhimala, and oriented themselves from there.

The hills is also known as Elimala, Mooshika Sailam and Sapta Sailam.

The hill was known as Ras Haili or Hili to Arab sailors. The hill had been named Monte d'Eli by the Portuguese.[5] and was known as Mount Delly, Mount Dilly, Delyn,[6] or Mount Eli to the British.

Hobson-Jobson suggests the original name "Elimala" comes from the Malayalam term "Eli Mala" (meaning "High Mountain"), and rejects alternative etymologies from "Elu Mala" (meaning "Seven Hills"), or "Elam" (meaning cardamom).[7] It contends the term "Sapta Sailam" ("Seven Hills"), found in a local Sanskrit text was just a misinterpretation of "Eli" as "Elu" by the writer. As the pronunciation of the consonant "l" in modern Malayalam is often better rendered as "zh", thus "Elimala" and "Ezhimala" are just alternative English transliterations of the same Malayalam word.[8]

Backwaters in Ezhimala

History

The ancient port of Naura, which is mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as a port somewhere north of Muziris is somewhere near Ezhimala.[9]

Names, routes and locations of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (1st century CE)

sesterces.[12] Pliny the Elder mentioned that Limyrike was prone by pirates.[13] The Cosmas Indicopleustes mentioned that the Limyrike was a source of peppers.[14][15]

Ezhimala kingdom based at Ezhimala had jurisdiction over two Nadus - The coastal Poozhinadu and the hilly eastern Karkanadu. According to the works of

Kodagu hills on the eastern boundary, also including the isolated islands of Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea.[4]

Ezhimala, which is part of

panchayath, is one of the most important places in the recorded history of Kerala. From before the period of known history, some chapters of the Ramayana and local Hindu legends associate the Ezhimala Hills with the epic, in particular with Hanuman.[21][22]

Ezhimala, Pazhayangadi, and several villages and towns in this region find plenty of mention in the extant Tamil

Mushika or Kolathiri Royal Family. Though the Dynasty of Nannans was a cousin or sister dynasty of the Cheras and Pandyas and Cholas, warfare among them was nearly consistent, and the period of Nannan was no exception.[23][24][25][26] There are texts that speak of Nannan fighting heroic battles at Pazhi against the Chera Kings who invaded his kingdom (Kolathunadu
). Eventually, Nannan was killed in battle by the Chera king, Narmudi Cheral. Like the other kings of the then Tamilakam cultural polity, Narmudi Cheral was a great patron of scholars and poets, and he once gifted his court-poet, Kappiyattu Kappiyanar with 40 lakhs gold coins, as a token of his poetic genius.

The entire South India coast was a hub of

Madayi Mosque in records its foundation year as 1124 CE.[34][20] The 16th century Tuhfat Ul Mujahideen also states about Madayi.[35]
Madayi is located just 5 km (3.1 mi) away from Ezhimala.

Extant Tamil Sangam texts describe the glory and wealth of the ancient Pazhi in the highest terms.[36] Sangam Era poets, as well as Classical Tamil poets of later centuries, like Paranar, speak of the wealth of Pazhi in the greatest degree. One of the Sangam pieces, Akam 173 speaks of "Nannan's great mountain slopes where goldfields abound, and long bamboos dried in the Sun burst and released the unfinished pearls."[36] Noted scholar, Elamkulam Kunjan Pillai states that "It is from the Kottayam Town (in Kannur District) and Kannur Town regions of old Ezhimalainad that innumerable Roman (gold) coins have been excavated. On one (single) occasion (gold) coins that could be carried by six porters were obtained. These coins were found to belong to the period down to 491 AD".[36]

Ezhimala was also a flourishing seaport and center of trade at least by the start of the

Buddha
had visited Ezhimala.

The

Mannanar.[39] King Ramaghata Mooshika's successors shifted their capital to Ezhimala, Valabhapattanam (Valapattanam), and eventually Chirakkal
, among other nearby places, over the following centuries.

Indian Naval Academy

The former Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, inaugurated the Indian Naval Academy in Ezhimala, which is the largest in Asia, on 8 January 2009. This institution trains officer candidates of the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard.[40]

Transportation

The national highway passes through

Cochin and Thiruvananthapuram can be accessed on the southern side. The road to the east of Iritty connects to Mysore and Bangalore. The nearest railway station is Payyanur on Mangalore-Palakkad
line. There are airports at
Calicut
.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Navy-Training Academy-proposed Expansion". Deccan Herald. 11 August 2017.
  2. ^ "Asia's largest naval academy opened". Arab News. 10 January 2009.
  3. user-generated source
    ]
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-8126415885
    . Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  5. ^ Edgar Thurston (1913). The Madras Presidency. Cambridge University Press. p. 167.
  6. ^ A Relation of Some Yeares Travaile, Begunne Anno 1626. Into Afrique and the Greater Asia., by Thomas Herbert
  7. ^ Yule & Burnell, Hobson-Jobson (1903 ed, p.303)
  8. ^ M.L. Dames (1921) Book of Duarte Barbosa, v.2 p.1
  9. ISBN 9788126415786
    .
  10. ^ Gurukkal, R., & Whittaker, D. (2001). In search of Muziris. Journal of Roman Archaeology, 14, 334-350.
  11. ^ A. Shreedhara Menon, A Survey of Kerala History
  12. ^ According to Pliny the Elder, goods from India were sold in the Empire at 100 times their original purchase price. See [1]
  13. ^ Bostock, John (1855). "26 (Voyages to India)". Pliny the Elder, The Natural History. London: Taylor and Francis.
  14. ^ Indicopleustes, Cosmas (1897). Christian Topography. 11. United Kingdom: The Tertullian Project. pp. 358–373.
  15. ^ Das, Santosh Kumar (2006). The Economic History of Ancient India. Genesis Publishing Pvt Ltd. p. 301.
  16. ^ District Census Handbook, Kasaragod (2011) (PDF). Thiruvananthapuram: Directorate of Census Operation, Kerala. p. 9.
  17. ^ a b Government of India (2014–15). District Census Handbook – Wayanad (Part-B) 2011 (PDF). Directorate of Census Operations, Kerala.
  18. ^ Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumāḷs of Kerala. Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 483.
  19. ^ Ayinapalli, Aiyappan (1982). The Personality of Kerala. Department of Publications, University of Kerala. p. 162. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
  20. ^ a b Charles Alexander Innes (1908). Madras District Gazetteers Malabar (Volume-I). Madras Government Press. pp. 423–424.
  21. ISBN 978-81-7211-052-9
    .
  22. ^ Kerala (India); C. K. Kareem (1976). Kerala District Gazetteers: Palghat. printed by the Superintendent of Govt. Presses.
  23. ISBN 9788184245684
    .
  24. ISBN 9788170902119
    .
  25. ^ Leela Devi, R. (1986). "History of Kerala".
  26. ^ Congress, Indian History (1981). "Proceedings of the Indian History Congress".
  27. ISBN 9780765601049
    .
  28. ISBN 978-0-231-70024-5
    . Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  29. ISBN 978-90-04-07929-8
    . Retrieved 25 July 2012.
  30. ISBN 978-81-903887-8-8
    . Retrieved 25 July 2012.
  31. ^ Prange, Sebastian R. Monsoon Islam: Trade and Faith on the Medieval Malabar Coast. Cambridge University Press, 2018. 98.
  32. ^ Pg 58, Cultural heritage of Kerala: an introduction, A. Sreedhara Menon, East-West Publications, 1978
  33. ^ a b Aiyer, K. V. Subrahmanya (ed.), South Indian Inscriptions. VIII, no. 162, Madras: Govt of India, Central Publication Branch, Calcutta, 1932. p. 69.
  34. ^ Muhammad, K. M. (1999). Arab Relations with Malabar Coast from ninth to 16th centuries. Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. pp. 226–234.
  35. ^ S. Muhammad Hussain Nainar (1942). Tuhfat-al-Mujahidin: An Historical Work in The Arabic Language. University of Madras.
  36. ^
    ISBN 9788172110529
    .
  37. ^ "Ouch, Something seems wrong!!". 31 May 2022.
  38. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 April 2009. Retrieved 20 March 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  39. ISBN 9788126402540
    .
  40. ^ "Untitled Page".

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